British cities clear up after looting

LONDON — British cities began on Wednesday to clean up shopping streets littered with debris from a night of looting by gangs of hooded youths copying the tactics of young Londoners who had rampaged through districts of the capital for three nights.

With a show of force and prayer, London fights back Riots reveal London’s two disparate worlds Updated 102 minutes ago 8/10/2011 5:50:05 AM +00:00 Democrats fall short in Wisconsin recall elections Northern lights captured on video Economic uncertainty feels like normal now Fetal genetic testing  may reshape abortion debate An emotional end to a dream

London itself was largely quiet on Tuesday night, with some 16,000 police -- 10,000 more than on Monday -- sent onto the streets in a show of force in districts where gangs had looted shops and burned cars and buildings virtually unchecked on the previous three nights.

But unrest spread across central and northern England on a fourth night of violence driven by poor, diverse and brazen crowds of young people.

Scenes of ransacked stores, torched cars and blackened buildings frightened and outraged Britons just a year before their country is to host the summer Olympic Games, bringing demands for a tougher response from law enforcement. Police across the country have made more than 1,100 arrests since the violence broke out over the weekend.

London's Metropolitan Police department said a large presence would remain in the city through the next 24 hours at least.

Though London saw no new unrest late Tuesday, the chaos spread to other cities. A police station in the central England city of Nottingham was firebombed by a 40-strong mob, and hundreds of youths battled police in the northwestern city of Manchester.

Get the latest updates on this story from breakingnews.com

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday police will crack down hard to quell the violence, as a watchdog group investigated the violence which first ignited the riots.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating the fatal shooting of a man by police, which sparked three days of rioting and looting across London and other British cities. The IPCC said on Tuesday there was no evidence a handgun retrieved at the scene had been fired.

Citizen cameras capture more London looters than cops

Reports initially suggested 29-year-old Mark Duggan had shot at police. His death sparked a riot in a north London borough on Saturday night when a peaceful demonstration over the shooting turned violent. This violence then spread throughout the U.K., prompting Cameron to speak out.

Citing "sickening scenes," Cameron announced that 16,000 police officers would be deployed on London's streets on Tuesday — up from 6,000 on Monday night.

Cameron, who cut short his summer vacation in Italy and recalled Parliament from its summer recess to deal with the crisis, also promised "even more robust police action."

"This is criminality pure and simple and it needs to be confronted," he added. "Justice will be done and these people will see the consequences of their actions. If you are old enough to commit these crimes, you are old enough to face the punishment."

As calls mounted for stronger measures, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh said police would consider using baton rounds — rubber or plastic bullets.  These have been used in Northern Ireland and while they are seen as a non-lethal alternative, they have caused deaths in the past.

With a show of force and prayer, London fights back

The wave of violence and looting raged across London spread to three other major British cities on Tuesday, as authorities struggled to contain the country's worst unrest since race riots set the capital ablaze in the 1980s.

In London, groups of young people set buildings, vehicles and garbage dumps alight, looted stores and pelted police officers with bottles and fireworks. The spreading disorder was an unwelcome warning of the possibility of violence for leaders organizing the 2012 Summer Olympics in less than a year.

Sad truth behind the London riot

The International Olympic Committee insisted it had confidence in British authorities. "Security at the Olympic Games is a top priority for the IOC," spokesman Mark Adams said.

The Football Association, meanwhile, called off England's friendly against Netherlands at Wembley on Wednesday because of the widespread rioting and looting in the capital.

England's players also issued a statement on Tuesday, saying: "We have all seen the terrible pictures on television and the most important thing at this time is the safety of the fans and the general public.

"At this time the whole squad would like to appeal for calm and an end to this disorder."

West Ham, a football team in east London, confirmed it had canceled a match planned for Tuesday as a precaution.

Neighborhoods across the capital faced a massive clean-up of smashed glass, bricks, bottles and gutted buildings as police reinforcements reclaimed the streets from the youths.

Riots reveal London’s two disparate worlds

On Monday, police made a rare decision to deploy armored vehicles in some of the worst-hit districts. However, authorities still struggled to keep pace with the chaos unfolding at flashpoints across London, in the central city of Birmingham — where a police station was set ablaze — the western city of Bristol and the northwestern city of Liverpool.

Authorities acknowledged that major new bouts of violence had badly stretched their resources.

"The violence we have seen is simply inexcusable," police Commander Christine Jones said. "Ordinary people have had their lives turned upside down by this mindless thuggery."

'Come join the fun'
The riots appeared to have little unifying cause — though some involved claimed to oppose sharp government spending cuts, which will slash welfare payments and cut tens of thousands of public sector jobs through 2015.

Others appeared attracted simply by the opportunity for violence. "Come join the fun," shouted one youth, racing along a street in the east London suburb of Hackney, where shops were attacked and cars torched.

Rioters were left virtually unchallenged in several neighborhoods and able to plunder from stores at will or attempt to invade homes. Restaurants and stores fearful of looting closed early across London.

Story: MP calls for BlackBerry Messenger suspension over UK riots

Witnesses were told of numerous cases of car theft by groups of looters.

Disorder flared throughout the night, from gritty suburbs along the capital's fringes to central London's famously ritzy Notting Hill neighborhood. London's Ambulance Service said it had treated 16 patients, of whom 15 were hospitalized.

Police said 525 people had been arrested and more than 100 people charged with offenses. Sky News reported that London's jail cells were full so suspects were being taken to police stations outside of the capital.

At one point, the London fire brigade said it was running out of vehicles to tackle fires started by the rioters.

Three people were arrested on suspicion of the attempted murder of a police officer left hospitalized after he was struck by a car in north London early Tuesday.

A 26-year-old man who was shot in his car during disturbances overnight in Croydon, south of London, died in a hospital early Tuesday, becoming the first fatality of the riots sweeping Britain, the BBC reported.

After dawn, police said, the unrest appeared to calm, either quelled by police or after rioters drifted away.

The beginning of the violence
Violence first broke out late Saturday in the low-income, multiethnic district of Tottenham in north London, where outraged protesters demonstrated against the fatal police shooting of  Duggan, a father of four who was gunned down in disputed circumstances Thursday.

IPCC said in a statement that ballistic test results showed "at this stage there is no evidence that the handgun found at the scene was fired during the incident."

Duggan's death came after two shots were fired by a special firearms officer, the IPCC said.

The initial results also confirmed reports that a bullet found lodged in a police radio at the scene was police issue.

Forensic officers told the IPCC that it may not be possible to "say for certain" whether the handgun found close to Duggan had been fired.

Duggan's partner, Semone Wilson, insisted Monday that her fiance was not connected to gang violence and urged police to offer more information about his death. But she rejected suggestions that the escalating riots were linked to protests over his death. "It got out of hand. It's not connected to this anymore. This is out of control," she said.

Duggan's death stirred old animosities and racial tensions similar to those that prompted massive riots in the 1980s, despite efforts by London police to build better relations with the city's ethnic communities after high-profile cases of racism in recent decades.

But, as the unrest spread, some pointed to rising social tensions in Britain as the government slashes 80 billion pounds ($130 billion) from public spending by 2015 to reduce the huge deficit, swollen after the country spent billions bailing out its foundering banks.

Msnbc.com staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

View the original article here